On Becoming a Christian – Part 4

(From 7/11/06 on my old blog)

(Hey, read the other parts first!)

Skipping ahead a few years, I had worked for 2 years in Chicago and then quit my job to attend the University of Wisconsin in order to earn a master’s degree. After that experience, I got a job working for Texas Instruments in Dallas, Texas. I lived by myself in an apartment for the first six months and then moved in with another guy who had started working for TI about the same time as me.

Rick and I found ourselves independently seeking direction in life and one of the avenues that we followed was to visit some churches. One of the first churches I attended was a large Baptist church. This was a church service of maybe 2,000 people – by far the largest church service I had attended up until that point. I remember very little about this service except for the impressive music.

In later weeks, I attended other flavors of churches such as a Church of Christ where the music was entirely voice with no musical instruments. I thought this was weird. I also attended a United Church of Christ which was the sort of church I was brought up in. I even remember the content of the sermon that morning – about how the Sabbath was made for man, not the other way around. There was something comfortable about this church though I did not attend again.

I ended up going back to that large Baptist church again. I was attracted by the presence of others my age who attended the church but it was my roommate Rick who invited me to go back. He told me that there was going to be a “single’s rally” with special music. It turned out that there was probably 150-200 others my age who attended this. The special music was by a quartet by the name of NewSong who got to be better known over the next few years with numerous hits in the contemporary Christian music arena. Back then they were closer to a traditional southern gospel quartet.

One of the songs they did was called “Good Ol’ Boys”. It was a story about a young man who thought he was basically a good person and therefore that he would be entitled to go to heaven on his own merit. Well, the person that NewSong was singing about sounded just like me. The story went on to explain quite plainly and logically using Bible verses that no one is good enough to go to heaven on their own merit.

Verses like these:

Romans 3:23-24
…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

Ephesians 2:8-9
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no one can boast.

John 3:16-18
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.

I was very struck by all of this. These verses explained to me my faulty thinking. There is nothing in these verses that says anything about being good enough to go to heaven. Rather, just the opposite; I’m not good enough; I fall short and am therefore condemned because of my lack of belief. So what does it take? It takes the Grace of God and belief and faith in Christ Jesus and in what he did by dying on the cross. That’s it. It was made plain to me that day.

At the end of their mini concert, they gave what they called an invitation. This was another time that God was knocking at my door and this time the knocking was very loud and clear. They had us all close our eyes and bow our heads. Then they asked three questions. First, they asked that everyone who had at some time in the past accepted Jesus as their Savior by expressing their belief in Him, they should raise their hands. Everyone kept their eyes closed and lots of people raised their hands for a moment as acknowledged by NewSong. Then they asked that everyone who had at some time in the past accepted Jesus as their Savior but had not been seeking to learn and follow His ways but wanted to begin anew. Again, while everyone kept their eyes closed, different people raised their hands for a moment. I didn’t raise my hand for either of these questions. Finally, they asked if there was anyone there who wanted right then and there to accept Jesus as their Savior by expressing their belief in Him, that they should raise their hands. I hesitated but then raised my hand. I let God in the door. I let Jesus in the door upon which he had been knocking periodically for years. This was the beginning of a new life for me…